Sydney at last

First an apology, if you tried clicking on the comment 'pencil' it didn't work. Well blogs are very complicated things and I got it wrong. Thirty years in computing wasted. I still don't read the instructions. In future click on any new entry and you should be able to leave a comment. Thanks to Alison for pointing out the problem and to Glyn for the interesting news about the coffee pot!

We arrived in Sydney on the evening before Australia Day. More time zone changes so while it seemed early evening to us, the Sydney-siders were going to bed. Which they do at about 10pm. We have had no problem with jet lag but what we can't get used to is the odd hours Australians keep. They get up at about 5am go swimming/surfing/walking, then go to work during the hot part of the day and by about 9.30pm most of them are ready for bed with only a few hardy souls still in restaurants and clubs. We just had time for a plate of pasta in a very pleasant Italian place before every thing closed. The waiter, an elderly grey haired man with a strong Italian accent, was very attentive. I thought he fancied Eleanor. Eleanor thought he fancied me. Well, this is Sydney! By chance we passed him in the street the next day and he said "hello", or rather being a good Australian, he said "how's it going?", so he remembered at least one of us.

I haven't yet got used to being greeted with "how's it going?" or the more formal "how are things with you today, mate?", or conversations ending with "be seeing you". What are the correct responses?

Wednesday morning we set off to see a bit of Australia Day. Apparently it has only become a big event in the last few years and seems to be very much a celebration of Australia and what it means to be an Australian. There is lots of emphasis on cultural diversity. The more radically minded aboriginal people call it "Survival Day" and take only a nominal part in the events. "Survival" may be over optimistic. A country which celebrates the absorption of people from everywhere else in the world still can't find a way of letting it's original occupiers live their sort of life.

Leaving our hotel we crossed the road to a small coffee shop which served really excellent coffee with croissants. I'm not a great coffee drinker but even I could taste the difference. A few yards frurther down the street finding our way became a bit more difficult. We were based in an area called King's Cross which contains an amazing mixture of housing and is far from the grid like structure of most Australian cities. There are modern villas set back among dark leaved ferns and palms, tiny maisonettes with maybe two rooms, old clapper board family houses, modern breeze block monstrosities, appartment blocks with art deco lettering, small hotels, cafes and restaurants of all sorts. Almost all older houses have deep verandahs so you can get out of the sun during the hotter part of the day. There are trees (the ubiquitous eucalyptus or palms mostly) along almost every street and every front garden has some sort of greenery. A bit too late in the year for most flowers. Not a gladdie in sight.
Click here for picture

We stopped at a corner shop to buy fresh nectarines, water and some more factor 30+ sun block (you just don't get lower strength). Completely lost we walked down an alley way at random and there was our first view of the bridge and opera house

in a vast harbour full of boats and surrounded with greenery. The thing which struck us most in the first couple of days was just how green everything is and how beautiful the harbour looks.

We spent most of the morning sitting on a spit of land, under a big eucalyptus, watching the boats, soaking up sun and atmosphere. It was only 35 degrees (note that 'only') and Sydney had turned out in full.


We visited Manley in the afternoon. To visualise Sydney imagine a coast line going N to S, cut out a irregular star shape from the land with one arm just reaching the sea. Central Sydney is at the west of the star, Manley on a small isthmus to the NE. When you get there by ferry there are beaches looking back across the harbour and about 1/4 mile away along a rather tacky pedestrian area (it reminded me of Weston-super-Mare but with sun and better looking people), is a fabulous silver sand beach facing Pacific rollers and packed with surfers. That bit isn't much like Weston at all. Didn't do much in Manley - I just wanted to get in a cheap crack about Weston. Could also add that Sydney ferries are much less efficient than H-K ones but who cares. Just sit back and enjoy.

In the evening to the firework display. Big screens in the harbours so we could be uplifted with stories about "new Australians", every race and colour represented. By the end everyone was getting a bit restless, admirable as it all was we wanted fireworks not a twenty minute life history from someone who had 'made it'. Fireworks were great as expected. At the end the first verse of "Advance Australia Fair was sung in a quavering voice by a pretty blond, blue eyed, eight year old (ethnic diversity has it's limits). The whole crowd stood and joined in but at the end of the first verse a 'real' singer took over from the little girl and the singing was noticably less. Confirming the comment in the Sydney Morning Herald that hardly anyone knows the second verse. So do you know the second verse of "God save the Queen"?

aaaargh the wicked librarian is throwing me off ..... back soon.